1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image capturing apparatus, face area detecting method and program recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known to recognize a face part of a captured person image, and performs a predetermined process on the face part. For example, JP 2002-49912, pages 5-6, FIGS. 6-7, discloses an image capturing system for comparing each of successively inputted captured images with a captured image subjected to a predetermined image processing process; extracting a skin color area from the former image if there is no great difference between both the images: extracting a face part from the skin color area; and performing a predetermined image processing process on a predetermined area of the extracted face part including its eye parts so that the processed face image cannot be discriminated by others.
This system requires to perform the face detecting and image processing processes successively on the successively inputted images, which is a considerably large burden thereon. It is supposed that the system is installed permanently at a location so as to capture an image with a predetermined angle of view. Thus, if a function such as that of this system is included in an image capturing apparatus in hand, the detecting speed and accuracy of the face area can be influenced adversely by changes in the angle of view due to possible inclination of the camera body.